Musings During Quarantine Time
It feels like there’s very little lightness to this time. Even as I use my mindful practices to try to keep me present and centered there is no amount of covering up what is truly happening in the world.
There is no way to mask the amount of grief and saddness and anxiety that ruminates and lingers like a foggy day.
All to say that there is still joy.
There are still moments of joy. Moments of peace. Moments of laughter. Moments of clarity.
It doesn’t need to last forever. And that’s what any type of practice (meditation practice, yoga practice, soccer practice, running practice etc) shows us. There are moments of high in a one-hour practice. There are moments of low in a one-hour practice. We show up and observe.
I found this chart posted by the National Wellness Insitute pretty helpful to light up my awareness. My only disclaimer that I want to add to this is that there is no right or wrong to this.
Sometimes I find myself in Fear Zone and that’s going to be my experience. Sometimes I’m in the Learning Zone. Other times I find myself in the Growth Zone. We are not bound to one and we are not striving for the other. We are wittnessing, honoring, and nurturing who we are in that moment.
Part of my coping mechanism is write, to be inspired, and feel the muse of poetry. In Greek methology, Calliope was the muse of epic poetry. Below is a small compilation of poetry I’ve written during this time and other poetry people have shared with me.
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“Go to the Limits of Your Longing”
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are the words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand. –Rainer Maria Rilke
